Every day, OBHG clinicians deliver life-saving care. Their around-the-clock presence ensures that all obstetrical patients receive immediate, unbiased care. Here’s just one example of an OBHG clinician delivering life-saving care. (Read the summary below and watch the video for an account of the full story):

OBHG clinician Dr. Taimur Chaudhry was on shift when a patient who was 38 weeks pregnant arrived, complaining of a headache and cramping. After evaluating the patient and realizing her blood pressure was elevated, Dr. Chaudhry diagnosed her with preeclampsia. It then became evident that the patient, who wanted to attempt a VBAC, was ready for delivery. Under Dr. Chaudhry’s care, the patient successfully delivered a baby vaginally.

However, after the delivery, the patient experienced a fair amount of bleeding and a mass transfusion protocol was administered. The placenta hadn’t been delivered and the patient was uncomfortable, so a decision was made to go to the operating room.

WATCH Dr. Chaudhry’s story to learn more about the emergency preeclampsia case. Dr. Chaudhry also shares his thoughts on having an OB hospitalist available for OB emergencies, simulation training, and how OBHG clinicians work with hospitals to ensure best practice protocols are in place.

“As I was reflecting on this case, several important points came to mind that I’d like to share with you. They have to do with the difference between having someone like an (OB) hospitalist available 24/7, versus a situation where you might not have a physician like that in the hospital. For instance, number one, we can offer the patient a trial of labor. A lot of patients have had a C-section and would like to try to have a vaginal delivery, but you really need to always have an OB/GYN on the unit pretty much. So, with a hospitalist, that’s an option for the patient. In some places where the patient wants a C-section, there is not a laborist or hospitalist in the OB unit, and therefore sometimes they can’t offer that, which increases potential complications for the patient. So that’s an important piece that an (OB) hospitalist can provide.

Additionally, some things that we do that maybe you don’t see face to face when a patient is there is that we do something called simulation. That’s really a lot of training with the OB doctors, the nurses, anesthesia, doctors, everybody, so that if a complication such as this arises we are ready to take care of it. In our hospital, the OB hospitalist team has been a big part of those drills, simulations, and training. I think that’s a reason why this patient had a good outcome. She got to the point where she needed a lot of blood, and she needed a surgical procedure. And to do that, we were streamlined, we had been trained, and our team was on top of things. And that’s why we were able to give timely, efficient, and effective care to the patient.

The other thing that the hospitalist program does is we teach and essentially work with the hospital to make sure that there is something called a massive transfusion protocol, which means when the mom is bleeding so much, there’s a danger of essential loss of life. We’ve worked with the hospital to make sure that such blood products are available like I was referring to the red blood cells and things like platelets, those are critical in terms of the lifesaving maneuvers for the patient.

All of that to say that in this situation, the doctor whose patient this was, the private doctor in the community who works closely with the OB hospitalist team, was not able to be present for this delivery. He had signed out the patient to us and asked the hospitalist to take care of the patient because he was not going to be available. So, you can’t imagine what it would have been like if someone like a hospitalist was not present and how that would have been handled – potential delays in care and who would have taken care of this critical situation for that reason, and for all that a laborist can provide. I’m grateful that we have this service at our hospital, and I think it serves the community and our patients and supports our colleagues in their offices and the doctors there as well.”